Ethics in the Profession of Aviation

Getting it right the first time, every time, is exceedingly difficult to accomplish.

In the profession of fixing and flying aircraft, that is exactly what we attempt to accomplish every day for each sortie generated and for every flight schedule executed.  If the pilots, maintainers, technicians, aircrew, and controllers fail to get it right, the cost can be high.

 The picture above was taken in Iraq in 2006 executing Casualty Evacuation in the Sunni Triangle.  The squadron executed 6,260 flight hours in a six-month deployment with zero missed missions.

Ethics - a set of moral principles: a theory or system of moral values. (Merriam-Webster, n.d.)

In an engineering study of failure analysis, it was discovered that 26 percent of aviation related accidents can be traced back to an event that was caused during maintenance.  Roughly 85 percent of those failures involve an omitted procedure or faulty installation of components (Usanmaz, 2011).

Meeting high standards requires having highly qualified and certified people.  Ethics plays a large role in setting standards and qualifying/certifying people.  During my time in aviation, most of the issues I have experienced with pulling an individuals qualification or certifications stemmed from unethical behavior that was manifest in the work environment.  Failure to maintain a process, shortcutting published requirements, or being untruthful about accidents all boil down to a breakdown of ethics in an individual’s system of values versus the organizations required system of values.

Ethical behavior and exhibiting ethical virtues are important in holding the high standard expected to always get things right.  There are plenty of other failures (material failure of a Gearbox Input Freewheel pictured above) that the aviation industry must worry about without questioning the ethical virtues of the crew, maintainers, and air traffic controllers. 

References

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Ethic. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January 12, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethic

Usanmaz, O. (2011). Training of the maintenance personnel to prevent failures in aircraft systems. Engineering Failure Analysis, 18(7), 1683-1688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2011.02.010.